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Julie Josler is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, with 20 years of experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families. Julie has been lucky to work in a wide variety of settings, including community mental health centers, hospitals, private practice, schools, and even in-home counseling. A volunteer job at a suicide prevention hotline when she was nineteen inspired a career helping people through their most difficult times. Counseling helps to address the fear, anger, and sadness from the past, as well as the complexities and obstacles of the present, so that you can pursue the future you deserve. The therapy Julie provides is genuine, where the goal is always to help you identify and address the source of your trouble, so you can work through it. She will help you find the tools to cope and succeed in your process. Her goal is to see you through to a happier, healthier self, always focusing on helping you find the power and control within yourself, needed to move forward. Julie has experience working with many issues, such as anxiety, depression, loss and trauma, relationship issues, anger management, ADHD, behavioral management, and many more.

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At UB, we believe that seeking mental health care is healthy, normal, proactive and something that everyone can benefit from at somepoint in their lives. Just as your physical health should be a priority, so should your mental health as both impact all areas of your life. If left untreated, emotional problems can impair a person's feelings, thinking, behavior and quality of life. In this way, seeking counseling can improve your overall quality of life and functioning.

A 2010 study by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health listed the following reasons why people did not receive mental health services:

• Could not afford cost (43.7%)
• Did not know where to go for treatment (20.5%)
• Did not have time (14.6%)
• Did not want others to find (10%)

UB provides insurance friendly and affordable counseling and believes everyone should have access to mental health care. With 5 Chicagoland locations and over 40 licensed clinicians, UB strives to bring quality therapy services to Chicagoans.

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Lisa Lemke is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Life Coach. She is trained in Neurolinguistic Programing and is currently finishing her trauma training certification in Holographic Memory Resolution. Lisa graduated Magna Cum Laude from John F. Kennedy University with a Specialization in Transpersonal and Somatic Psychology. Lisa works with trauma, mood and anxiety disorders, relationship, spiritual issues, and life transitions. Lisa’s deep understanding of the interrelationship between the mind, body spirit, results in a transformative experience that resolves core issues, not just symptoms. She works with adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Lisa’s style is warm, compassionate and interactive, yet direct and insightful. She believes the client is the expert and works collaboratively to help the client reach their goals. As the therapist and guide, Lisa will help the client navigate through challenging situations, so they may find inner peace and live a rich and fulfilling life.

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Awake - Painting by Alicia Hoffman

I created this piece the summer I turned 30, and proudly found my first gray hair. About this time a deep struggle with my place in the world came to the surface of my awareness. I was wildly unfullfilled and caught between that rock and hard place of being too unsure of myself to create a drastic shift in order to live the kind of life wanted, and the fear of there being a chance that that life wasn’t possible.  I call this painting “Awake” because within this same time frame I received two very clear wake up calls: one from a bat that flew into my apartment and litterally woke me up while simultaneously scaring the hell out of me , and the other from a friend symbolized here in a jade colored outline of a buck.

Before I went to sleep one night I had been repeating a Maori chant I heard in one of my favorite movies.  The call brought an eventual end to the main character’s struggle in the film, so I figured I would seek comfort in the same call. That night a bat flew in and woke me up with it’s fluttering and squeeking. It even rang the bells on the back of my front door as it clusmily flew around my living room while I screamed at the top of my lungs. I recounted the complete story including the chant and a hilarious call to 911, to my mentor, who had extensivly studied and experienced various indiginous cultures.  She told me the bat is often a symbol of intuition, vision, and dreaming. We both decided the bat had come to wake up a part of my psyche that kept hitting the snooze button.

The other wake up call came from a musician friend who always wears a jade carving of a buck around his neck. One evening shortly after we met he shared a story and a promise made to himself not to let anything be in the way of his work as a musician. I was so touched and inspired by his dedication to his work and knew I needed to make a similar commitment to myself to live my life as authentically and with as much integrity as possible. I researched the symbolisim of the buck when I started writing this blog and found the deer or buck is related to following our instincts and trusting our gut, which is something I had not been doing enough at that time.

After that summer things seemed quite dark for a while, but like the bat I sensed my way through the darkness by following my intuition and gut twords greater authenticity and fulfillment. My experience with my friend and the bat woke me up to myself. I saw a reflection of myself in my friend that I had been having trouble seeing clearly. I witnessed dedication, peacfulness, authenticity, fulfillment, and trust in oneself to achieve those virtues. The bat reminded me to use my gifts of vision, dream, and intuition.

I love the piece of my history that is captured in Awake. Looking at it years later I apreciate the quietness of the inward looking figure sitting amongst all the happenings of life and chaos around her. The process of looking inward created the change I needed and the experience provided me with courage and great empathy for others bringing their quest for fulfillment to the therapy office.